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Cartoon Network Holds Upfront

Feb 14, 2007  •  Post A Comment

In the aftermath of losing its general manager last week because of fallout from an Adult Swim promotion that disrupted Boston, Cartoon Network today held its upfront presentation in New York and unveiled its programming plans for next season.

Cartoon plans five new series, additional movies and interactive initiatives as it competes for the hearts and minds of kids with Nickelodeon and Disney.

New original series at Cartoon are “Santo” (working title), an action-adventure about a Mexican wrestler with mystical powers; “Chowder,” a comedy series about the magical misadventures of a young apprentice to a chef; “The Secret Saturdays,” an action comedy about a family of scientists; “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack,” about a kid raised by a talking whale who follows a pirate on comic adventures: and “Re-Animated,” based on Cartoon’s top rated original movie about a boy who gets the brain of a cartoonist in a transplant operation.

Cartoon Network also ordered a second season of “Class of 3000” from Andre “3000” Benjamin.

The network said it plans to launch CallToons, a mobile application that puts Cartoon Network characters on cell phones. Using patent pending technology, CallToons replaces ringtones, wallpaper and other ordinary mobile phone functions.

“CallToons does more than set a character’s voice to a ringtone,” said Ross Cox, senior director of entertainment products, Cartoon Network New Media. “CallToons allows a character’s personality to take over the mobile phone’s functionality so that they actually interact with the user and incoming callers in a unique way.”

Cartoon Network general manager Jim Samples resigned last Friday because of an Adult Swim promotion featuring lighted boxes that appeared to be suspicious to authorities in Boston, which led to the bomb squad being called and the city ensnarled last month. Cartoon’s parent, Turner Broadcasting paid $2 million to reimburse local governments for their emergency response.

(Editor: Romanelli)